


Fireworks

by NotManTheLessButNatureMore



Series: I Love You [8]
Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: Drabble, F/M, PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-01 19:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17249921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotManTheLessButNatureMore/pseuds/NotManTheLessButNatureMore
Summary: A New Year's Eve drabble.





	Fireworks

**Author's Note:**

> This contains some PTSD on Strike's part, because if I can find one fault with the show (and to a certain extent the books) it's that Strike's PTSD hasn't really been explored much.

A bang woke Robin with a start, the jerk of her arm knocking chocolate sweet wrappers from the arm of the couch into her lap. Strike was nowhere to be seen. She looked down the length of the couch and frowned. Her legs had been resting across his thighs before she’d fallen asleep but now the only trace of him was an empty bottle of Doom Bar on the floor. Robin heard another bang.

 

“Bugger!” She sat up with a jolt and turned bleary eyes towards the clock on the shelf underneath the television.

 

_11:50pm._

 

“Strike! Strike it’s nearly New Years! Shit, I fell asleep. Cormoran!” Robin jumped up and ran into the kitchen but it was empty. She heard another bang, someone had clearly been a bit premature with the fireworks.

 

“Cormoran?” Robin stuck her head out of the kitchen door and looked down the hall, light pooled out from underneath their bedroom door.

 

“Cormoran, come on we’re gonna miss it.” Robin shouted down the hall as she grabbed the small bottle of champagne out of the fridge. She’d bought it on the way home from the office a few hours ago, much to Strike’s annoyance. He’d been more grumpy than usual the past few days but she’d wanted to celebrate their first New Year’s living together. There was another bang, closer this time as Robin saw the flash of light spill across the sitting room.

 

“Strike?” Robin ran down the hall, sliding to a stop in front of their bedroom door. She swung the door open, ready to grab Strike and haul him back to the sitting room in time for the cheers and bells that would emanate from the TV. What she saw stripped the smile from her face.

 

“Cormoran?”

 

He was sitting on the bed, his back to her, with his hands over his ears. His back was rounded and he was swaying back and forth ever so slightly.

 

“Cormoran?” Robin said, louder this time, and she saw his movement still. The hands covering his ears moved away slightly and came to hover either side of his jaw. Robin walked around the bed and made eye contact with him before sitting down slowly on the bed. His eyes were wide and his face ghostly pale. He looked scared, Robin thought.

 

“Sorry.” He said, his voice quiet. He was breathing in long steady and measured breaths.

 

“Cormoran.” Robin put her hand on the back of his neck which was clammy with sweat.

 

“It’s the bangs. It's stupid, it doesn’t even sound the same as...” He forced a smile but he hadn’t dropped his hands away from his head completely and Robin saw his wide eyes swing towards the window in anticipation of the next firework.

 

“Oh Cormoran.” Robin pressed a kiss to his temple and a sudden idea occurred to her. She ran quickly to their wardrobe and pulled a box from behind a pair of his boots. It contained various items she’d used while tailing suspects. Another bang rang out and she looked back at Strike as he shut his eyes and began to sway once more with his hands over his ears.

 

“There you are.” Robin said as she grabbed the bright yellow safety ear muffs Strike had bought her a few months ago when she’d been undercover at a Heavy Metal music festival and felt like her brain was going to leak out of her ears. The fireworks seemed to be ramping up and Robin wondered whether it was midnight yet or not. She moved back to the bed and stood in front of him hoping to block any flashes coming through the window. She waited for a pause in the noise and then went to move Strike’s hands away from his ears but he pulled away from her.

 

“Cormoran, look.” She held the earmuffs in front of him and he opened his eyes briefly and looked from them to her and then back to the window. He pulled his hands away quickly and she placed them over his ears. Robin sat beside him with an arm around his shoulders. She looked anxiously at the alarm clock on her side of the bed, it was 11:58pm.

 

Robin got up onto her knees on the bed beside Strike and turned his face to look at her. When he opened his eyes she pointed at the middle of the bed and then began to ease him backwards so he was lying down. Robin lay down with him and put her hand on his chest. His breaths were controlled but not natural, and it reminded her of her own breathing practices when she was having a panic attack.

 

Robin heard a distant bell ring out and lifted her head off the bed to see fireworks flood the sky outside. She dropped her head back to the bed to see Cormoran looking at her. He smiled, tightly, and she could see the tension in his jaw but his eyes had lost their wild look. He gripped her hand tightly and Robin turned onto her side and pressed her other hand to his face, rubbing the stubble across his cheek with her thumb.

 

“ _I love you_.” Robin mouthed and saw the recognition in his eyes.

 

“I love you too.” Strike whispered and they both shuffled closer to each other until they were pressed together.

 

Strike took a deep breath and looked over towards the window to see bursts of colour cascade silently across the sky, all he could hear was the muffled sound of his own breathing. Robin watched him, waiting for panic that didn’t come. Instead he pulled her closer and they lay together watching the sky fill and empty of colour.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Year everyone (not that I'm particularly fond of it as a holiday myself). I promise there's some happier fics to come from me soon :P


End file.
